Laptop for light gaming.

killanena

My little sister wants a laptop for christmas that can play games.

• Budget: €400
• Intended use: Light gaming (Minecraft, Sims 3 etc) and watching movies on.
• Mobility: Size doesn't matter.
• Warranty: 1 year should do but can life without if it means knocking off a good few euro.
• What Operating System do you use? Win 7/8

I've been looking at this.

mordeith

killanena wrote: »

My little sister wants a laptop for christmas that can play games.

• Budget: €400
• Intended use: Light gaming (Minecraft, Sims 3 etc) and watching movies on.
• Mobility: Size doesn't matter.
• Warranty: 1 year should do but can life without if it means knocking off a good few euro.
• What Operating System do you use? Win 7/8

I've been looking at this.

It says the GT610 is available on selected models. I think the integrated HD4000 performs just as well (if not slightly better). It should run Sims 3 on medium settings reasonably well.

killanena

mordeith wrote: »

It says the GT610 is available on selected models. I think the integrated HD4000 performs just as well (if not slightly better). It should run Sims 3 on medium settings reasonably well.

Is there any better laptops for the price or similar ones for a little cheaper. I really didn't want to go over €400

km991148

I just bought one of those for the folks - seems a good machine, quite robust for a plastic chassis machine and nice keyboard/trackpad for the price. Was the best processor for the money (a couple of weeks ago at least).

Note - I didnt try any gaming but notebookcheck etc should be able to help out there.

dodzy

Hi people, didnt want to start anew, and apologies to OP for hijacking but a very similar request here.

A workmate is going to treat her fella to a laptop for Christmas and has a budget of €500. General use, nothing demanding, and just just Football Manager on the gaming end. Is her budget realistic ? and if so, any recommendations ?

closeline

dodzy wrote: »

Hi people, didnt want to start anew, and apologies to OP for hijacking but a very similar request here.

A workmate is going to treat her fella to a laptop for Christmas and has a budget of €500. General use, nothing demanding, and just just Football Manager on the gaming end. Is her budget realistic ? and if so, any recommendations ?

And i am a third person for this. Like to play football manager but also for college work etc. Would i get something for 400.. should i wait for the sales

Irishcrx

You'll always get a better deal in the sales than closer to Xmas. I recommend Komplett.ie for laptops, cheapest I've found and I've bought from them they have a range of everything.

€400 will get you a decent spec machine but not for gaming although most will run FM14 no problem, they won't support the 3D match engine without a dedicated GPU so turn that off to speed it up. FM is about processing speed and Ram Available. Look for something with at least 4GB of RAM and an I3 processor.

closeline

http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb-02pc/80012411/acer-aspire-e1-522-12506g50dnkk/details.aspx

what about this

killanena

I actually got this today, It used but I think its a great bargain and seller ensured me it was as good as new + I have buyer protection so
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/190973701379?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Intel Core i3 3110M 3rd Gen with intel HD Graphics 4000
750 gb Hard drive
Windows 8 home professional
along with the other specs all just for 287 euro including postage by USPS & tracking.

Really happy with that buy and there is 2 left if anyones kids are looking for a laptop for christmas or for college or whatever.
I know my little sister will love it

closeline

killanena wrote: »

I actually got this today, It used but I think its a great bargain and seller ensured me it was as good as new + I have buyer protection so
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/190973701379?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Intel Core i3 3110M 3rd Gen with intel HD Graphics 4000
750 gb Hard drive
Windows 8 home professional
along with the other specs all just for 287 euro including postage by USPS & tracking.

Really happy with that buy and there is 2 left if anyones kids are looking for a laptop for christmas or for college or whatever.
I know my little sister will love it

Asked in a shop today should i stay from anything. Told asus as they always give problems

Nonoperational

killanena wrote: »

I actually got this today, It used but I think its a great bargain and seller ensured me it was as good as new + I have buyer protection so
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/190973701379?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Intel Core i3 3110M 3rd Gen with intel HD Graphics 4000
750 gb Hard drive
Windows 8 home professional
along with the other specs all just for 287 euro including postage by USPS & tracking.

Really happy with that buy and there is 2 left if anyones kids are looking for a laptop for christmas or for college or whatever.
I know my little sister will love it

If that's coming from the States you'll get caught for VAT...

km991148

closeline wrote: »

Asked in a shop today should i stay from anything. Told asus as they always give problems

bit of a generalisation there!

Some asus models are cheaply build (but are cheap). Owned a couple over the years and been happy enough with them.

killanena

abit of an oversight, I got the laptop today. Its great, tested sims 3 and it plays great at medium high settings but the problem is the voltage difference between USA and Ireland. Will this do the trick?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009CS79WI/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

mordeith

killanena wrote: »

abit of an oversight, I got the laptop today. Its great, tested sims 3 and it plays great at medium high settings but the problem is the voltage difference between USA and Ireland. Will this do the trick?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009CS79WI/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

are you sure the laptop can only take the lower voltage? You might only need to get a plug adaptor.

Nonoperational

I've never seen an adapter not rated for both voltages... Is it definitely not?

Overheal

km991148 wrote: »

bit of a generalisation there!

Some asus models are cheaply build (but are cheap). Owned a couple over the years and been happy enough with them.

Indeed.

I could personally say the same of Toshiba, that I've seen a lot of them cause issues. But I've also seen Sony cause issues, customers complain about Dell, complain about HP, etc. etc.

So in abstract: there really isn't a brand to "avoid", there are only laptops to avoid. Toshiba's C-series for instance, great value if you treat them gently, they are made of pretty cut-rate polycarbonate materials and most models in the series have insufficient reinforcement at the hinges, or at least older models did.

Acer, again, offers good value and the laptops look sleek enough but check the screen resolution, it's typically quite low, and even further Acer somehow manages to force their laptops into a stupid-high DPI scaling on some of their models, whereas a company they sometimes put out neat or experimental things like the R7 and I have no complaints about that screen or their touchscreen Monitors and All in Ones.

HP generally seems to manage to put out good computers in pretty much all low and high end ranges but it depends on how you feel about split-convertibles, I think as a form factor I dislike hinge mechanisms, too many moving, fragile parts. They are reliable choices in Desktops and one of the first adopters of the All in One form factor so they're still effectively leading that game. HP got the worst reputation hit after the Nvidia scandal in 2006 even though the situation affected PCs across the industry, even Dells and Apples. HP just had a larger market share in the problem and uneducated consumers pointed the finger at HP. The company barely has a working relationship with Nvidia now, offering very select choices and currently have pretty much achieved BFF status with AMD for their CPUs and GPUs, going so far as coining the Sleekbook, which are basically AMD-powered ultrabooks. Intel owns the trademark for "Ultrabook."

Dell similar to HP has a lot of decent picks but as a brand theyre very by the book. Great if you want a business laptop (the Precision series is more than decent) but their other laptops, desktops etc do little to impress aside from the ordinary.

Sony typically has really sleek designs and is typically among the first to offer higher resolution screens but it all depends on your case: some times I hear the warranty service can be a boor and in other cases not using name brand Wifi adapters brings down the entire machine's likability. Like HP these typically come with a lot of bonus (or bloat) software, not all of which is useless.

Samsung like HP doesn't seem to have a bad unit in any of the low or the high end, and they do have a fair advantage when it comes to buddying up with Samsung's Android devices. Most of their high end stuff notably uses lithium polymer batteries for better wear.

Lenovo was IBM's PC Division that was bought by these asian folks. Still put out good machines, and I'm particularly fond of their keyboard designs. Their premium line is famous for the Yoga transforming convertible laptop, and newer models have really crisp IPS displays with higher-than-retina clarity.

ASUS as a company has grown out of Motherboard manufacturing and design. Jump over to Newegg and see some of their review videos, the level of care and detail they go into is legit. They also do pretty reasonable Wifi and graphics cards - basically ASUS is not a bad company. Now, they've been selling Complete Units for less time than that, so they're still relatively new to the laptop marketplace, so there have been a few hiccups especially in the low end, mostly to do with cheap polycarbonate bodywork. And their support services I hear can also be a boor, but I've never had to use them, having built 3 PCs built on top of ASUS motherboards. Next to Apple and Samsung, I would consider ASUS the #3 spot in the mobility market too, responsible for the Transformer tablet series and the 2014 Nexus 7 as well as a couple other Nexus devices. They only lose points with me because every new transformer they came out with sold with a separate, non-backwards-compatible keyboard dock, and this trend still hasn't gone away.

And then you have Apple.

And even those are still generalizations. The takeaway I want anyone to have is no brand should really be the target of an Ad Hominem, go find out what you want and kick the tyres. If you buy something or avoid something based on brand, well then in general that's just silly. I completely understand that in some circumstances, like I refuse to patronize Nvidia for their own corporate behavior in 2006, but at the same time I've cooled my dislike of Intel since it's Antitrust's came to light, where they were essentially buying AMD out of competition.

ranuy

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